They were talking about something bigger: identity, gender and what it means to be true to yourself.

It began with a button, a small blue-green pin, no more than 2 inches in diameter, affixed to the front of Ryan Walters’s name tag.

“My pronouns are they/them,” read the button in shining light blue letters. It was the first time Walters had said so in front of co-workers.

Walters, who identifies as genderqueer and prefers to be called “they” rather than “he” or “she,” was one of countless people at the conference who wore pronoun badges this week — a first for Dreamforce and an unusual step on the tech-conference circuit that left many scratching their heads, wondering why the buttons were needed in the first place.

The buttons weren’t the only thing Salesforce did this year to welcome conference goers who are transgender and those who don’t neatly identify as male or female — known as nonbinary, or genderqueer. On the second floor of Moscone West was an all-gender bathroom that was met with confusion, disgust and delight.

For those who know Salesforce and the politics of CEO Marc Benioff, a San Francisco native who has been a vocal advocate for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights, it wasn’t surprising.

Benioff led a push earlier this year to condemn several pieces of state legislation widely considered hostile to LGBT people, and he encouraged other businesses to denounce a North Carolina measure that makes it illegal for transgender people to use public restrooms based on their gender identity rather than the biological sex they were assigned at birth.

Nearly 20 other states this year considered similar anti-LGBT legislation.

“Equality is a core value at Salesforce, and we want all of our guests and customer trailblazers to feel welcome at Dreamforce,” said Michael Peachey, a Salesforce vice president and Dreamforce conference chairman.

Lois Winkler, 54, who lives in North Carolina, said she and her colleagues — a group of about half a dozen nonprofit workers — all showed up on the first day with their pronoun badges on.

They hadn’t planned it. And only one of them identifies as anything other than “he” or “she.”

Winkler said they felt it was important to participate, and in doing so show people in the Bay Area that not all North Carolinians support the controversial bathroom law.

“My daughters are Millennials, and they have have made sure I completely understand that the T in LGBT is just as important as all the other letters,” she said. “It’s new to a lot of people, this idea that gender is not a binary, but I think it’s important. It’s real.”

Not everyone at Dreamforce was impressed.

The conference, which draws about 170,000 people from all over the world to the Bay Area, was the first time many had seen a gender-neutral bathroom or a pronoun badge.

Several people wondered aloud whether calling an individual “they” was grammatically correct.

Some suggested that wearing such a button may unfairly single out those who used pronouns other than “her” or “him.”

“I’m just me, so what does it matter what pronoun I use?” said Lorraine Martinez, who lives in the Bay Area. “It’s not a problem unless you make it a problem.… I think it could make people feel uncomfortable to categorize themselves.”

Photo: Liz Hafalia, The Chronicle

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Senior business analyst Ryan Walters decided to wear a pronoun badge during Dreamforce '16' on Thursday, October 6, 2016, in San Francisco, Calif.

Senior business analyst Ryan Walters decided to wear a pronoun badge during Dreamforce '16' on Thursday, October 6, 2016, in San Francisco, Calif.

Photo: Liz Hafalia, The Chronicle

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A gender-neutral bathroom is used by people attending the Dreamforce conference at Moscone West in San Francisco.

A gender-neutral bathroom is used by people attending the Dreamforce conference at Moscone West in San Francisco.

Photo: Leah Millis, The Chronicle

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Senior business analyst Ryan Walters decided to wear a pronoun badge during Dreamforce '16' on Thursday, October 6, 2016, in San Francisco, Calif.

Senior business analyst Ryan Walters decided to wear a pronoun badge during Dreamforce '16' on Thursday, October 6, 2016, in San Francisco, Calif.

Photo: Liz Hafalia, The Chronicle

Gender-aware Dreamforce badges let you pick your pronoun

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Others tutted disapprovingly or dismissed the effort as political.

“I’m not a fan,” said a woman from Memphis, who declined to give her name because she said her company had a policy against speaking to the media. “People are talking about (using different pronouns) in Memphis, but it’s not like it is here. God made us men and women. That’s how he meant for us to be.”

The bathrooms, which contained stalls for people of all genders to use, saw a steady stream of men in and out, but few women.

For some, this was a turn-off.

One Dreamforce attendee paced back and forth trying to make sense of the signs.

“Where’s the ladies’ room?” she implored before walking away.

Some conference goers declined to wear them because, they said, they didn’t see the point.

“I figured people can see what I am, so I thought I’d let it be at that,” said Aaron Olson, who was attending his first Dreamforce conference from Fargo, N.D. “I’ve never seen anything like it before.”

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Salesforce has been planning to unveil the buttons at Dreamforce since June, and announced its intentions online last month.

It wasn’t just transgender or gender-nonconforming people who wore the buttons this week.

Megan Schultz, an IT systems analyst from Houston, had heard about Salesforce’s plan before attending this week’s conference. When she found it in her welcome packet, she said, she was thrilled.

“It makes it normal rather than having it off in a corner where only the people who want one have to go to find one,” she said. “It’s raising awareness, and showing people that we can all be more sensitive in general because for some, the pronoun thing is an incredible battle.”

Schultz, who is a lesbian, said though gender identity and sexual orientation are separate, she feels Salesforce’s efforts on gender stand to benefit the LGBT community as a whole.

Jorge Emiliano, who attended the conference with a Mexican consulting group, pinned the button to his backpack. Instead of selecting “he/him,” which are the pronouns he uses, his badge said “ask me.”

“I wanted to support the cause and raise awareness,” Emiliano said. “I think because people look at me and I have a beard and I look like a man, they will assume that I am a ‘he.’ But I wanted to show people you can’t make a presumption about me, because you don’t know. I thought this was a cool way to do that.”

Walters, who was designated female at birth, began coming out to close friends and family as gender-nonconforming last year. But at work, people still used “she,” and used Walters’ given name rather than Ryan, Walters’ preferred moniker.

“I just didn’t feel like having that conversation every time I went into a meeting or every time I want to go pee,” said Walters, who also identifies as queer. “I think people are just getting used to the gay thing, they’re just starting to have the language to talk about it. With gender, it’s harder. People don’t know yet how to talk about that.”

It wasn’t until Walters pinned the button to the Dreamforce lanyard that Walters mustered the courage to talk to their co-workers.

The discussion that followed was surprising, Walters said, but inspiring.

“It really made me question why I haven’t told certain people because of how I assume they’re going to react,” Walters said. “People just want to understand. The only way they can do that is if we talk about it.”